Kurumi had bolted after the feast had ended, small parcel in her left hand to give to Twinkle, and August being dragged behind her with her right hand.

The kitchens, her second (or was it third now?) home. How she had missed it. It's marble floor. All the wooden cupboards filled with all sorts of exciting and new ingredients just waiting to be baked into a cookie. It was like heaven.

"You will love it," Kurumi chirped reassuringly, practically skipping down the corridor now. "There is a giant pantry filled with fresh ingredients, house elves running all over the place, charmed objects flying here and there...similar to that non-magical movie with the talking candlestick." Kurumi was beaming. How exciting to be back in the...


WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!

Kurumi dropped everything, including August's hand, and ran to the door where she practically had her nose pressed against the sign there.

"N-N-No students..." Kurumi wibbled.

He was being dragged to a place that he feared and a place that wasn't his nice new bed in Gryffindor tower. "Kurumi, can't we just come back in the morning, the Elves are probably busy cleaning up after the Feast and maybe going to bed. You wouldn't want to keep them up would you?" She obviously had more respect for the creatures than human in this respect.

"Beauty and the Beast is the movie you are talking about and it does sound nice but..." before August could go on, Kurumi stopped pulling him down the corridor and stopped infront of a painting with a large bowl of fruit, her nose practically resting on the canvas. Auggie had the small sensation to laugh, the whole thing reminding him of a scratch and sniff type deal but didn't because the girl was obviously upset.

He walked forward and placed a hand on her shoulder and tried awkwardly to reassure her things were ok, and not give away too much of his excitment of not having to confront his fear of House Elves that night. "Umm, it will be fine Kurumi. I'm sure they are just really busy with cleaning like I said before."

"I'm too worried to wait until morning," Kurumi said. It was clear that she was getting a little out of breath from all this dashing around corridors, but the house elves were never ones to leave things as messy as they had been. She was worried that something had happened to them. What if there was some horrible creature in the kitchens keeping them all hostage? What if the basilisk had come back and decided that house elves were its new favorite food?

"Beauty and the Beast...that's right," she nodded.

And there most certainly was a beast in the kitchens.

Kurumi continued to gawk at the sign, and put her hand on the painting underneath it. Her frown grew and and looked over her shoulder at the third year she had dragged along with her.

"House elves are extraordinary at magic," she said softly. "You saw how quickly one was able to clean the entire table while myself and two others were doing things little by little. They can even apparate in and out of Hogwarts, no one else can do that." Except the Headmaster, but that was just a rumor she had read somewhere.

Kurumi looked up at the sign once more. No students...well, there were certain people that THAT didn't apply to. She knew just who she would go and see, but she ought to give the woman a rest. First thing in the morning it would be!

Well....she had him there. He had seen first hand how quick the self-loathing House Elf had managed to clear the entire Gryffindor Table of the soiled dishes and silverware and then disappeared back to what August could only imagine were the Kitchens. He didn't like how worried she sounded so even though the sign didn't look promising, the boy decided to try and amker her thoughts not so negative. "What if they don't want us in there...because they are making a suprise?" he said hopefully. This girl really had a thing for House Elves he could already tell.

Just as it looked like maybe he was getting through to her and she may show him how to get to the Gryffindor Common Room and where he could find his bed, a look crossed over her petite features. "Ummm what are you thinking about?" he asked nervously.

Making a surprise? Kurumi hadn't thought of that, but she supposed it could be possible. However, given the nature that the house elf had appeared at the Gryffindor table and left, well, it was safe to say that the elf had not been in the cheeriest of moods. The poor thing seemed downright panicked. The thought had crossed her mind that perhaps the house elves were rebelling, but seeing them beat themselves and risking serious eye infection, there was no surprise worth that, right?

The food had come on time, which made her think that the kitchens themselves were not entirely damage. It was something to do with the cleaning...not enough soap?

Kurumi cleared her throat. "N-Nothing, never mind," she said shaking her head. Just over analyzing things like usual. "Let me just leave a note and this parcel here and I can take you back to the common room."

Kurumi reached into her robe pockets for some spare parchment and scribbled a quick note that she then set on the ground under the painting along with the parcel containing a simple gift for her dear little house elf friend.


And with that, Kurumi took a step back. She looked at the pear on the painting and, just for her own amusement and to give herself some false hope, she tickled it. She knew it was pointless, but she just had to try, right?

She took a few more steps back and looked at August. "To the common room then?"

Alright well they were off to the Common Room now? Ausgust had turned to leave and walk back up the corrdior that had come into from the Entrance Hall but stopped as Kurumi scribbled a note and sat a small package down by the door. This who situation really had her worried, and he wasn't sure she bought his effort to cheer her up.

After she was finished, she asked him if he wanted to go to Gryffindor Tower. "Yep, let's go." The third year began to walk away and breifly looked over his shoulder towards the painting again. Hopefully nothing wrong was going on.

Kurumi nodded to August and took once last glance at the sign on the door. She just had to believe that there wasn't anything seriously wrong, but she hadn't put too much thought into the fire of last term. In fact, the event even happening seemed to have been forgotten almost the next day.

Maybe she would come to the kitchens often, just to check and make sure that all was well...It couldn't hurt anything, right?

Janice was skipping around her commonroom's floor level, when something weird caught her attention. It was the fruit portrait that leads to the kitchen. Usually, she would tickle the pear for some afternoon snacks, but now, it has that 'No Studensies' note on top od the pear.
First, the dirty plates. Then, the not-so-house-elves'-standards food. Now this??? She thought. Weird. It's just plain weird.

Perhaps because of part-hunger and part-guilt for laughing at the elves earlier (more like the former, looks like it), michelle crept quietly down the corridor leading to the kitchen. Sneaking up to the kitchen door, she was just about to turn the door knob when behold! there aren't any

"Huh?", the first year stood there baffled. Taped on a portrait though, was the sign 'No Studentsies'..well, maybe she could just knock for bit, quietly, not even forcefully..and check out how the elves are doing..and get some fooooood.

After wandering up from the dungeons, Matt headed towards the kitchens with a notebook and quill; he wanted to find out exactly what was going on after the elves were acting rather strangely during the start of term feast which definitely was not something that he had seen before. Maybe there's some kind of involvement with the Ministry again.. it seems that things become rather strange whenever they get involved with the school. He approached the door, noticing that there was a sign evidently written by one of the elves themselves which was odd since there had never been a sign there before. What was going on here?

She had to see what was going on - really it was just that important. After slipping down the corridor she walked up to the tapestry that was supposed to hide the door to the kitchens. Really? No students?

She glared at the note for a minute before looking around to see who else was down there trying to invesitgate this situation. Oh dear. She hardly understood what was going on and why the note was here - and not to mention the only person she recognized was Matt. MATT? He was investigating too. Well that made things interesting.

"So - i heard tell these kitchens were open to students usually" she decided to was best to strike up a conversation than to ignore the situation and people all together. Moving her hand to the pear she tickled it. Nothing happened - as she expected it wouldn't.

Not satisfied in being left out of the glorious snacks, Michelle pestered at the portrait anyway. Trying to remember the name of the elf she saw at the slytherin table, "..was it Imma? Emma? NEMMA?!..oh well"

"NEEEMA! NEEEMA! Open the door! The studentsies are hungry!!"

Justin decided to have a liitle snack and decided to go to the kitchen for a bite, but when he rounded the corner to tickle the pear he was stopped fast in his place. Instead of a pear he found a sign hanging .





How strange

Kitchens. Only the greatest place in ALL of Hogwarts, if only the Hufflepuff common room had been IN the kitchen, that would've been Sammy's dream. It's official, Sammy's goal in life is to live in the kitchens of Hogwarts, perhaps she'd have to be a house elf to do that She wasn't particularly fond of their ears though, so she'd just have a tent or something like that.

As she neared the ever familiar place she saw something on the portrait that would usually let you into the kitchens, that was odd. Odd as an Ood even. As she neared it her mind started working at the three times the pace it usually would Maybe it's just saying that that's how you get in? Why is there a sign there though? Everyone knows how to get in anyway? Well apart from some little muggleborn firsties but they'll learn soon enough she thought a little bit panicky.

When she finally saw what it said she just stared. No. It wasn't possible. The house elves loved her, they HAD TO LOVE HER. SHE ATE THEIR EXCESS FOOD. WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS TO HER. SO now she was just staring at the sign, her bottom lip wibbling. She needed Amy. Where was she? SHE NEEDED TO SEE THIS INJUSTICE. And Sammy was in need of some moral support, Amy was good at that.

Amy loved food, and was in the mood for the house elves scrummy dummy brownies, the one's that oozed slightly as you bit into them and pecan yumminess tumbled into your mouth. Yeah. Those. Plus, Amy was doing homework, and it was a well known fact, Amy could not concentrate unless she had brownies, or another form of sweet stuff. They hadn't been allowed into Hogsmede and it would take a braver soul than the short brunette to break the rules and wander off down there, even if she was going into sugar withdrawl.

And we'll have some nice brownies...and tea, but not sardines she muttered to herself when she saw a group of people congregating around the portrait of the fruit. Basically, her second home. The strange thing was, she could also see the familiar blondo, and she looked like she was having some sort of wibble fit. Not good. Amy went nearer, and expected to see a bunch of firsties. But firsties these were not, and anyone who'd been here more than a month knew how to get in. But shhh, it's a secret

Sa-

Amy suddenly saw. The notice. And she pretty much burst into tears, except she didn't cry, she just started to shake, and her breath caught. She turned to blondo whovian and grabbed her arm, shaking her, Sammy, Sammy this is a joke right? She asked, with a manic laugh

Yes. This was desperate. And Amy and Sammy without food, were not Pizza and Pasta. They wern't human. They HAD to break in, somehow

SHE COULDN'T GET FOOD. THIS WAS HORRIBLE. SHE WAS HUNGRY! This simply couldn't be happening, food was more important than breathing to Sammy and here was a sign telling her that she couldn't have any. She wasn't even paying attention when someone started talking to her and shaking her. Only the last part of what they were saying was caught by the blonde food lover.

It couldn't be a joke. Who would joke about such things? NO ONE. Though some people at Hogwarts did have weird senses of humor, WHICH SHOULD NOT BE INFLICTED ON OTHER PEOPLE IN THIS WAY! Especially Sammy and Amy, they loved their food. Sammy loved food more than people. "If it is a joke," she started, before turning around and yelling

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!"

Yeah. She was not happy. She wanted food. What was she going to do now. SHE COULDN'T SNEAK IN FOR MIDNIGHT SNACKS! With that thought she started wibbling even more, and shaking a little bit. SHE NEEDED FOOD.

Amy was still shaking and inwardly sobbing, with huge heaving shoulders. Out of the little congregation of people, she and Sammy were definatley the most affected by it, they were having a mini breakdown. Not even mini, they were having a third life crisis. Over food. Which "normal" people would of found strange, but not for Amy and Sammy. Their life revolved around food.

She nodded with Sammy's comment NO IT'S NOT AND IF IT IS A JOKE WE'LL GET THE WEEPING ANGELS ON YOOOOOU!

Nice and casual...

Watching the two Hufflepuffs having a mini-breakdown, Michelle was getting worried. They better get food FAST!

"NEEMA!! Open the door now! The studentsies are hungry AND crazy!"

Well now what? They had yelled, they were upset, but it wasn't getting them anywhere. They were still in the corridor outside the kitchen, without food and now a little Slytherin was calling them crazy. She didn't really mind the crazy thing, but it didn't make her feel any better. SHE COULDN'T HAVE FOOD. She didn't know why the house elves had suddenly gone on strike, maybe it had something to do with the dance lessons Mr. Stryker had teached? maybe.

But whether it had something to do with that or not it didn't matter, Sammy was still foodless. And now very upset. Turning back to the horrid sign she said "I feel like I've had a baby, then the baby died and this is the death certificate" COMPLETELY NORMAL FOR SOMEONE WHO IS UPSET. Maybe her baby house elves who usually provided her with as much food as she wanted had died NO. That would be horrible, AND the school would've gotten more house elves, wouldn't it?

Minerva was wondering down in the kitchen area. She was feeling homesick and wanted to see if students could possibly have a place to cook. She just really wanted to do something normal, well here you would call it muggle I guess. "H...he...hello" she looked around not seeing anyone. "Is anyone here I was hoping to maybe see, well I wanted to see if I could possibly be able to make something."

Jayden was hungry and wanted to get a mid-day snack, walking forward up to find the pear she was supposedly supposed to tickle to gain entry. Instead she found a sign, which read:




"WHAAAAAAT!?!?" She sputtered. This was inconceivable, this was WRONG.


"Pips! Pips!" She called out, knocking furiously on the portrait as she called out to the little house elf that had shown up at her table during the feast.

Nothing. Hmm.....

MERLIN! Maddy thought as she saw the sign. Well, she wasn't just hungry. She actually had to return something to the kitchen that they might need.

She gave a knock at the door, unasuming somebody would answer cause they'd suspect she was another student, which she was, but she wasn't there just for a snack like every other student.

It was worth a try. She knocked again...

Alexia was roaming around the castle when she saw a girl knocking at the Kitchen "door", Lexia herself knocked at the door an hour ago. then she decided to speak to her. "um, excuse me", she said. "Its no use, I've also been knocking quite a long time too, but no one opened it, nor answered" she exclaimed.

"I have to return this cutlery the we cleaned in charms class" Maddy said, holding it out for the other girl to see " Maybe I should try tickling the pair". Maddy walked over to the pair, reached out and tickled it, avoiding the note. " Hopefully they have some sort of magical detection that can tell I actually have something to drop off" Maddy said.